Who Told You You Were Naked?!

Done with this sermon, we do a moment for those to trust in Jesus. Y'all come up here. We're going to do that final song. And then after that, we're going to do the question and answer session. We're going to spend a lot more time answering questions today cuz you guys keep asking.

In fact, how many of you have asked a question in the question and answer series? Maybe they're all in the first service. A couple of y'all are in here. I love it. Love it.

We're going to answer some questions even if you don't want to know the answers to them. Today, it's going to be — I — First service was fun, so I hope it's fun here in the second service. I'm going to dive in and I won't be quick. I'm not going — I'm going to try not to talk quick. I'm going to try.

But the sermon is going to be much shorter than usual so that we can spend some time answering many of your questions. Before I jump into the message, we will be in Genesis chapter 3 if you have your Bibles and want to turn there. But I want to do our spotlight of the week. If you don't know this, we have a team of about a hundred and something volunteers who come and serve every single week to set this up, tear it down, serve our kids, and serve you all. So, can we just celebrate that team for a minute?

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

We're going to do that every week. I'm going to do a spotlight every single week. If you look to your left and to your right, you see these things. We call them pipe and drape. If you look above your head — some of y'all sitting in back cuz you didn't want this above your head — this is called trussing and lighting.

This stage right here is something that we bring in. Out in the lobby, we bring everything in and we move the stuff out of the way; we try to transform this space. Everything in kids, we set up and then tear down. There is a team that we call the logistics crew. Our people who go to the trailer storage at 4:45, pick up the trailer, bring it over here.

Another group of people meets here at 5:00 a.m. We set up the entire space. And then after the second service, some of those same people — they're here from 5:00 a.m. Until 1:20, some of them, right? I'm here from 5:00 until, I don't know, I fall asleep in the chair out there at about 2:00 every week.

It's fine, it's just relaxing. But that's the logistics team. They make the physical space happen for all of us on Sunday. And so, what I want to do is spotlight them for a moment. Jake, where you at?

Jake, is David in here for the service? David? Guys, I got — all right, all right, all right. I wasn't going to do it, but he's here. I didn't do it last week cuz I didn't want to hurt you.

David, he runs our logistics team essentially. Yeah, give it up for David. Bro. Yo, last Monday — can I say it, David? — last Monday, David had a heart attack.

They put three stents in his heart, and he showed up at church last Sunday. We told him, "Hey, bro, if there's any day you can miss, this is a day you should miss." But he was like, "I'm called to do this." So, he showed up. He was safe, and then we didn't — we didn't let him do anything. But he came. So, all y'all got the excuses to not show up on Sunday, remember: David had a heart attack on Monday, showed up on Sunday.

But I want to say, logistics is something that is crucial to the church. It gives you a lot of time doing the ministry, and it's time in the ministry, time serving others, time spending time — like energy around other people, time in biblical community — that is going to help take you to your next step in your walk with God. And so, I want to encourage anyone who's hearing me talk about logistics, thinking, "I could show up at 5:00, " or "I can stay after second service" — I could stay after second service and see how they tear down — I want to encourage you: grab that card and write down "logistics" at the bottom of it, fill out some info, and we will get you connected to the team. It can be as intense as being here all day. It can be as simple as helping us tear down after this service.

We not only need the help, but we believe it's going to be a blessing to you, because we want to scale to the place where we're reaching tons and tons of people out here in the valley, and we want you to be a part of it. All right, there's my spotlight of the week. Go logistics team. Go David. Go Jake.

Go everybody else on the logistics team. David, be healthy. I didn't mention it last week — I would have given you honor last week, but I wasn't sure how nervous you'd get if I brought you up in front of everybody. I don't want to be at fault. Genesis chapter 3 — I'm going to read it and then I'm going to walk you through the question we're answering today.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Same Scripture we read last week, minus a couple verses. Starting in verse 6:

"When the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate. And she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord — or from the presence of the Lord God — among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?'"

That's my God — "Where are you?"

"He said, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.' And he said, 'Who told you were naked? Have you not eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'"

Now, let me ask you this question before I give you my sermon title: who told them they were naked? Anyone? Good, that's good.

I was hoping someone would say "serpent, " but no one wanted to say anything. If you're going to be honest, for years of my life I thought "serpent." How many of you thought "serpent"? Be honest. You don't have to be. Just a couple of you.

The rest of you are perfectly smart, need no sermon today. For years I read that passage. I was like, "Of course, yeah, they ate the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and, you know, the serpent had kind of talked to them." And so I just assumed the serpent gave them a download after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — that he said, "Hey, by the way, you're naked, you should probably put loin coverings over there so that God doesn't see your private parts." Right? That's what I thought. But then I looked back — and guys, I was in my 30s when I looked back — and I tried to, like, he asked that question, "Who told you were naked?" And when I look back, it says something very simple.

It says they realized that they were naked. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and nobody told them that they were naked. This traumatic event caused them to respond in such a way that they fashioned loin coverings, that they hid from their creator. What started out in chapter 2 as connection and closeness — nakedness was a symbol of shame and disgust in chapter 3. This is a traumatic moment in Scripture that reverberates for you and me today.

This was the beginning of sin. And it's interesting, because eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasn't what separated them inherently from God. It was the knowledge they gained, the realization that they were naked, that caused them to hide from God in the midst of the garden. It was their shame, actually, that separated them from God. And there's one question that we've received many times over the past couple of months, even a few times over the last couple of weeks during this Q&A series.

And the question kind of goes something like this: what do you do with childhood trauma? And I'll tell you up front that trauma is a res— sorry — our response — shame is a response from the trauma that we encountered. And that's what we see in Scripture. And I think all of us connect with this reality in some form or fashion. But if I were to ask you, how many of you have trauma?

How many of you'd raise your hand? Love the honesty, love the honesty. I think you're thinking about adverse childhood circumstances, like, you know, the ones that you're thinking about that are pretty serious in nature. But I would propose to you today that all of us have childhood trauma. Why?

Because your parents were sinners, and your grandparents were sinners, and their parents were sinners, and we all struggle in this environment of sin that was caused by Adam and Eve in the garden. And when they were kicked out, we all struggle with sin. Our default positioning in this world is disconnection with God that is only repaired by the person and work of Jesus. So because there is sin, we all have life experiences when we're younger that impact us into our adulthood. And whether they're crazy negative, moderately negative, or even neutral, the habits that we formed as children impact the way that we raise our kids, we interact with our spouse, the way that we work at our jobs, the way that you even come to church.

We all have trauma, and our response to that trauma is pervading our lives right now. I don't think I need to prove that to you much further, but I can tell you this: my mom, my son, and I went to Cracker Barrel on Friday — not because I was prepping for this message, it's just, you know, it happened to help me prep for this message. And you've got three generations of my side of the family sitting at a table at Cracker Barrel. Way too expensive, but still, it's good — it tasted really good. And we're processing through our neural pathways and habits that have developed as a result of our own experiences from younger ages.

One of the things we joke about is that all three of us have resting bless face. And we do. I talk about this a lot because it's a true thing. You see it on my face all the time. You're like, "Is there something wrong?" No, it's just my face.

It's just what happens sometimes. It's because I respond to thought processes that were developed at a young age that default to negative. And so naturally my face corresponds with my thoughts. Those thoughts are formed during early childhood. You've got thought processes, activities, habits, neural pathways that have formed in your childhood that are still affecting you today.

And if you don't believe me, we should talk about emotional intelligence at a small group. Because I always run into somebody at some point — I don't want to be too intense, but I want to be clear and helpful — where someone doesn't realize something that's impacting them from their childhood. I'll ask them, "Hey, tell me about your childhood." You can see that they've avoided the things that happened in their childhood, and they don't presently realize how what they're saying, thinking, and doing is impacting the people around them. That's trauma, or a response to it, rather. And what we see in the garden is that all humanity is responding to the trauma that was encountered at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So, I'm going to give you my sermon title. I'm going to dive into my points really quickly because I want to answer a bunch more of your questions. The sermon title is, "Who Told You Were Naked?" You see in the text that no one told them they were naked. It wasn't the serpent. They realized it, covered themselves, hid themselves.

And we all respond — if I were to use it as a metaphor — we all respond similarly to Adam and Eve. We feel shame, and we respond in line with the shame that we feel about certain traumatic events that happened to us in life. There's a Hungarian physician, his name is Gabor Maté — I think that's how you say it. Here's what he says. He says, "Trauma is not what happens to you, it's what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you." What he's saying is that we have shame, and that shame lies to us about who we actually are because of trauma.

And that trauma, it tells us who we are based on what happened to us rather than what God has been trying to tell us. Let me say it this way: the way that we think as a default mode of thinking lies to us. And God wants to teach us a new way. He wants us to put on a new self. He wants to renew our minds.

So, I want to help you with that. I've got two points to give you, and I'll do it as quickly as I can. First off, one of the best things that you can do about the trauma that you encountered in your childhood, whether you know it or have avoided it, is — it happened. Whatever it is, it happened. And the best thing you can do is name it.

Or call it out. Look at your neighbor, cuz something happened to them. It might have been serious, it might have been kind of serious, it might have been not serious. They might not know that they have trauma. We've all got it.

Look at them. Look at them boldly. Widen your eyes. You widen your eyes at them. It happened.

It— what? One person? I got to— thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate it. Look at your other neighbor.

Maybe they look better to you. It happened. Call it out. Call it out. You— you got to name these traumas.

One of the best things that you can do as you leave here is have a conversation with your spouse, or your parents, or whoever, and identify graciously and nicely, with forgiveness, what happened to you. Like, I moved around 17 times before I turned 17. And I could say that's not trauma because it wasn't crazy, but I moved around a lot. That impacts the way that I behave now. And I've had to come to grips with how that makes me behave right now.

I get bored kind of easily. I wonder where that comes from, right? You are impacted now by the things of your past, and you've got to recognize it and call it out, because the trauma you encountered has rewired your brain to think in a certain way. And if— if you're going to let God do what he wants to do, you've got to name or call out those things of your past. You got to know what rewired your brain in the first place, in order to allow God to do what he will in your mind and in your activities.

Cuz that's what trauma does. Here, like— scientifically, I'm not a scientist, I don't think. Historian, maybe. I'm not a scientist, but— but here's what trauma does. Trauma impacts three main seats within your brain.

And the first one is your amygdala. Your amygdala is the seat of your emotions. And what trauma does, is it— especially as shame creeps in— is it enlarges your amygdala. It creates more gray matter in your brain. And the amygdala seats, or houses, your fight or flight response.

So you wonder why you're flying off the handle every two seconds— maybe your amygdala is too big. And maybe your amygdala is too large because there's so much trauma that has impacted your life that has been avoided or not dealt with currently, that you haven't handed over to Jesus to do something with, that now you're triggered all the time because you haven't called out or named it. But trauma also impacts other aspects of the brain. It actually reduces the amount of gray matter, or the size of our prefrontal cortex, which is the area of reasoning in our brain. Another thing that it hits is your— haha, now you— you hate the science— the hippocampus.

And that is where your memory is stored. Trauma impacts all three of those things. It reduces the last two I mentioned, and it enlarges the amygdala. So biologically, you are negatively impacted by the neural pathways created by your response to trauma. And it has to be fixed in order for you to honor God's calling on your life.

And praise God that we have a solution in Christ Jesus, but it starts with recognizing what happened to us. In fact, to come to Jesus, you have to recognize that you sinned and fell short of the glory of God. You have to recognize that someone did something to you that caused you to live in such a way that was beneath the calling of God on your life. Recognizing it is half the battle, and healing in your life is going to begin by naming that trauma. But the second point is: while it happened, and it may not have even been your fault that it happened— in fact, for those of you who have encountered various traumas throughout your life, I want you to know it is not all your fault.

But because of what Jesus has done, he enables us to create a new pathway, to create new neural pathways. By the power of God's Holy Spirit, he is transforming us from the inside out. What does it say in Romans 12:1? It says—, what did— what did I say, Hannah? Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12:1

She's my default mode when I forget a Scripture, but y'all know I know it now. I just said it— see, I quoted it even though I screwed up in front of everybody. That's traumatic, but I got to respond properly to it. So what I love, about— I guess my study into this second point is, yes, Jesus happened. He was robed in flesh, dwelled among men, died on a cross, offered us forgiveness of sins.

And now, because of what he's offered us, not only do we live in eternity with God, sealed into eternity by the Holy Spirit, we also can live an abundant life with a new self. He says, "Therefore, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come." That's what we can live in Christ. And what's funny is science and the Bible coincide here when it comes to how we respond to trauma.

And I have a list here, and it came from a scientific textbook, or Chat GPT, whichever— you never know. And it lines up with Scripture, and I want to walk you through how to create neural pathways in your brain while also seeing how Scripture teaches us the way to do it. So the first thing that I learned in reading science, or ChatGPT, is you got to engage in new learning processes. Those of you who are stagnant or static, whichever one, you're not moving forward, you're not learning anything new— it's very difficult for you to create neural pathways. But when you start to learn something new, it stimulates your brain regions that are involved in memory and coordination.

The Scriptures actually tell us to grow in knowledge of our Savior. The Proverbs would tell us to continue learning and being teachable. The Bible tells us that we got to continually grow. Paul says, "I press upward toward the calling of God in Christ Jesus." He doesn't say, "I'm just going to wait on Jesus to do everything." "I'm going to engage, " he says, "in behavior that helps me move closer and closer to my Creator." Paul always is willing to learn. He was willing to learn a whole new religion when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus.

He was willing to sit at home for about ten years in Tarsus waiting on Barnabas to come get him. He was willing to learn from Antioch. He was willing to learn throughout his entire ministry. You see this with the disciples as well. When the Holy Spirit comes, when they're in the upper room, they're not sitting up there like, "Nope.

No tongues for me." No, they— they were teachable. You had a bunch of Galileans willing to be used by God's spirit. And it— oh gosh, it creates new memories, improves your coordination. This next few is pretty obvious, and it is biblical, but I'm not going to harp on it, because you know your body's a temple unto the living God. Says in 1 Corinthians.

I think it's 1 Corinthians, Anna. Is it 1 Corinthians? Yeah, it's 1 Corinthians. Body is a temple. Awesome.

Cool. Physical exercise, balanced nutrition, adequate sleep. You know you're more triggered when you didn't get any sleep? You know you're more triggered when you've been eating too much red dye? I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. I don't— I don't have nothing to avenge you or whatever. You know you're triggered when— when you've not been getting enough endorphins released from your system. Like, these are normal, like, physiological things that we can do that will help us, cuz physical exercise increases the— I'm reading this— the production of neurotrophic factors, particularly in the hippocampus. Your memories are better when you exercise, or you relearn memories that you already have, but you put a new spin on them because you have a different perspective when you're running versus when you're being lethargic.

Balanced nutrition supports overall brain health and the plasticity of your brain. My— adequate sleep is essential for memory consolidation and the removal of toxins from your brain. That's the science, but the Bible tells us pretty clearly that your body is a temple unto the living God. We are called to honor God with our entire body, and as we do so, he creates in us a way— or, sorry, he— he pushes us in a direction, a new trajectory, a pathway to— to be excellent. To, when we're interacting with the world, do better.

This next one I love: mindfulness and meditation actually help you respond properly to trauma. They enhance— mindfulness and meditation enhances your attention, reduces your stress, leads to structural changes in the brain areas associated with emotional regulation. So if you're a hot mess, practice mindfulness and meditation. The Bible is wrought with commentary on how we should meditate. Says in Psalm 119, meditate on your word— I meditate on your word day and night.

He talks about how his word is in him. Paul tells us to think on the things that are true, right, honorable, pure, lovely, and of good repute. You will create neuro— new neural pathways as you meditate on God's word. And science proves it. In 2011, there was a study done at some school— I don't know, it was a school though, so you can trust it.

Sixteen participants underwent brain scans, and after eight weeks of a meditation program, it showed that there was a difference in the brain. That it actually shrunk the amygdala, and that it increased the size of both the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. In other words, the very thing that trauma, like, killed in your life, meditation will restore in your life. And I'm going to be honest with you, some meditation isn't helpful, but meditation on God's word, which is full of God's truth, is eternally helpful. And it wasn't just 2011— there was a 2012 study, 2013 study, 2014 study, at different schools with way more people.

I'm sure one of them was an Ivy League— you got to trust it. And it proves that your brain chemistry, the structure of your brain, shifts when you seek God. You are creating new neural pathways. You are becoming fresh, new. What the Bible says is true.

And if you want peace, it's not that peace evades you, it's that there are barriers built up in your brain through childhood trauma that, when you start releasing them through meditation, God actually pushes you further and further into your calling. It also says that you can be creative. And here's one that I love, as a pastor who's trying to build a church: social connections actually help you move away from the response to trauma into new neural pathways, because social connection provides emotional support, gives cognitive stimulation, and it improves the tone of your vagus nerve. I don't know— look it up. Vagus nerve is some central nerve that, like, helps you feel better, and your overall well-being is improved when the vagus nerve is not negatively impacted.

I don't know, whatever. But I know what the Scripture says. It says that when we seek the things that are true, right, honorable, pure, lovely, and of good repute, peace comes into our life. I don't know if it's the vagus nerve, but I feel better when I recognize my victory in Christ Jesus, right? It's better.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the— the of the spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death. When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, it says He'll add all other things. And I guess that has something to do with the vagus nerve. But what I know is the Scripture is correct, that I'm being made new when I seek Him. I'm being made new in Christ Jesus.

That the power of God's Holy Spirit can shift every aspect of my being, moving me away from the trauma of my childhood into what He's genuinely called me to. Because all of us, when we get started, no matter how big your trauma is, we are all impaired by sin and whatever we have encountered. And it's only Christ Jesus who can shift that trajectory. So what I want to do is give you my final kind of side point. And that is: introduce Christ into every aspect of your life.

When you're thinking about the things of your past, when you're triggered in a moment, when you're having that argument with your spouse that is a result of something that happened when you were a child, but you don't realize it yet, invite Jesus into the conversation. And when you invite Jesus into the conversation, He starts to shift the chemistry and structure of your brain even in that moment, so that you can— you can start operating differently. You can do that, like, in every moment of every day. Like Paul talks about this kind of stuff constantly. He says, "In Him we live and move and have our being." He says that, whether eating or drinking, we do all to the glory of God.

And what Paul, Jesus, the New Testament authors, they want you to invite God into every aspect of your life. And I remember when I was, younger, and as I got older, I— I had had traumas that I didn't realize were traumas. I had avoided them for way too long. I had created neural pathways that took me away from God and into this RB Did is as I was processing it, I said, "Jesus, where were you?" I'm going to read you what I wrote. We're not going to do a salvation moment, but I want you to know: if you are ready to receive Jesus, check that box.

I'm going to reach out to you this week and help you take your next step toward God, because on June 22nd we have baptisms, and I want you to make your faith public, and I want you to have faith. I want you to move closer to God, but I want to tell you this. This is what my conversation with God looked like the other day. I'm just reading it. "I remember that time where I was broken.

Stuck in a room and unable to figure out how to get out of that situation. Others were against me. Nothing I said or did was working. I felt so alone and isolated. Even those I thought were in my corner seemed to be against me.

This is just me and God. Why in the world did this happen, Lord? Where were you?!"

And in that moment, as I was praying, I just I felt this — I felt this tug. I don't know how to describe it, but I felt like God kind of took over and started speaking to me. And it could be indigestion, but I feel like it was the Lord.

And what he said — he said: "I was standing right there in the back. No one could understand what you were going through, but I saw you, 'cause I'm the God who sees. You felt pain in that moment. I noticed it. I know what it's like to feel that level of attack, chastisement, rejection." And felt it.

It wasn't right what happened, but you weren't alone. And I asked this question: why didn't you come to my aid in that moment? "Didn't I?" That's the response to it. It felt so interesting. "Didn't I?

Didn't that person defend you? Didn't those people apologize? Didn't you learn and grow from the situation? Aren't you still here? Haven't you remembered that situation where you were in a position of authority over others?

Haven't I used it for your good? Oh, I've watched what has happened in every moment of your life, and I've turned it for good. Even now, what you went through is going to help someone else find healing. I'm in every moment. You can call on me.

Invite me into it."

That's what I wrote, and I stopped. I don't know what happened, but I wrote this for you. Remember this: Christ is in every moment you've ever experienced. So invite him into that moment. Jesus happened, so your trauma doesn't have to hold you down any longer.

He loves you. He cares for you. And he wants you to embrace something that you've never experienced before because of sin and what it's wrought over your life and the lives of those who raised you. But there's something better. Encounter it.

Call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Call on the name of the Lord and invite him into your situation and your life struggle. He will draw you in. And the worship team is going to come up here right now. Again, if you need healing from trauma, if you need to step forward in your walk with God, if you need Jesus for the first time, check that box.

I'm going to go through those cards personally today and reach out to you. The band is going to come up here. We're going to worship for a moment, and I'm going to answer some questions. But take this moment to invite God into your situation. God, we thank you that you're here.

We thank you that you.